head to head · open source
orm vs pg
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars, 2,538 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pg has 5,783 stars, 415 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. orm leads on adoption by 724% (47,640 vs 5,783 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; pg is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, pg 7%. orm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, orm), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| orm | pg | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 5.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-07-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 415 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick orm if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pg if
- You want the pg feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pg fits your workflow better
About orm
Prisma ORM is a next generation TypeScript ORM for Node.js and TypeScript applications, supporting PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, SQLite, MongoDB, and CockroachDB, and it is aimed at developers and teams building data backed applications in that ecosystem.
About pg
go pg is a PostgreSQL client and ORM for Go that focuses on PostgreSQL specific features and performance, built for Go developers who want typed models and direct access to types such as hstore, jsonb, and multidimensional arrays.
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or pg more popular?
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars and pg has 5,783. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and pg free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pg under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and pg?
orm is written in TypeScript and pg in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, orm or pg?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,640 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pg if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.